Lion Monument: Chaironeia lies on the main route from Phokis to north Greece, and to Boeotia and Attica. One of the most important events in its history took place in the small plain between the foothills of Mount Theurion and the Boeotian river Kephisos. This was the battle fought in 338 BCE which established the supremacy of Philip II in south Greece. The Athenians had taken up position to the each of Chaironea, near the stream of the Aimon at the foot of Theurion, opposite Philip, which the Thebans were arrayed against Alexander in the plain near the Kephisos. Two polyandria (common tombs) were erected on the positions occupied by the rival forces. The site where the Macedonians were burind was found and excavated by the Ephor of Antiquities Sotiriadis in 1902-1903, three kilometers to the east of Chaironeia. It is a tumulus seven metres high. At the point where the fallen members of the Theman Sacred Band were buried, a colossal lion was erected facing the Macedonian tumulus. In ancient times, the lion was assembled from five pieces of marble. At some point over the centuries the sculpture collapsed and shattered, possibly as a result of subsidence of the ground or of an earthquake, or because of the poor quality of the stone of which the base was made. Byron found it in pieces and partly buried when he visited it from Ioannina in 1809. The Englishman Crawford discovered the head and a few pieces during an improvised excavation in 1818, but covered them again. The Turkish Sultan wanted the Lion for Constantinople and Ali Pasha for Ioannina, but they gave up their claims because of the difficulty of transporting it. A restoration was planned in 1834, but was abandoned for lack of funds. The site was excavated by the Archaeological Society in 1879, when 254 skeletons were found buried in seven rows within an enclosure. The restoration of the monument was begun in 1902 by the sculptors Phytalis and Sochos, with funds provided by the Archaeological Society. A pedestal 3m. high was constructed and the pieces were reassembled, missing parts being restored with stone from Xiria near Livadeia. In 1998-200 the monument was conserved (the surface was cleaned and the mortar replaced) by the IX Ephorate of Prehistory and Classical Antiquities in collaboration with the Centre of Stone of the Greek Ministry of Culture. |
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